Hi Paulo,

If you only need a single estimate of blood flow rate through the tissue areas of your interest, consider using labelled microspheres (label type depends on equipment you have access to (eg radiolabelling could use beta counter etc). The disadvantages are that a one shot estimate of blood flow requires sphere capture in adjacent capillary bed, preferably one that is receiving the predominant outflow of the vessel.

If you are looking to compare doppler versus organ/vessel flow, you could set up an anaesthetised surgical model where the femoral artery is cannulated distal to the stenosis and that Doppler echocardiography could be performed whilst the actual blood flow rate is recorded using drop counter (calibrated)  before blood is returned to vascular system. By performing a series of different stenoses, you could confirm the validity of the doppler compared to anaesthetised, cannulated vessel. Performing these surgical cannulations in mice will need skill and practice to minimise within and between animal variation.

Thank you Hellen by the directions.

Paulo,

This paper reports on microsphere use in mice (reproductive system) that is adapted from the Bruce 1976 reference (see pdf ref list). Hope it is useful. Kind regards, Helen

http://ajpregu.physiology.org/ajpregu/262/4/R666.full.pdf

Thank you Baptiste. I will read the papers.

Paulo